Health-Care Bill Slows to a Grinding Halt

With Christmas almost a week away and health-care reform still bogged down in the Senate, Democrats seem poised to miss their self-imposed deadline to pass the legislation in time for everyone to go home for consumerist rituals. The main reason they’re having so much trouble? Those pesky Republicans. Yesterday the GOP brought debate to a standstill by forcing the reading of a 767-page amendment on creating a single-payer health care system. The shenanigans lasted three hours before Democrats pulled the measure. But don’t expect the stall tactics to end there. Today Republican Senator Tom Coburn said “There will be several more attempts to derail this bill from a parliamentary standpoint by me.” And if he doesn’t succeed, maybe a Democrat will kill the bill for him!